Blaster device



Jan. 5, 1965 R. CARON BLASTER DEVICE Filed Oct. 4, 1963 RACINE CARON BY m ATTORNEY United States Patent 3,163,963 BLASTER DEVICE Racine Caron, 42 Whitworth St., Thompsonville, Conn. Filed 0ct..4, 1963, Ser. No.'313,926 1 Claim. (Cl. 51-11) nected to the air outlet hose connection of a familiar form of domestic vacuum cleaner for supplying the air stream.

The preferred form of device embodying the principles of the invention, hereinafter called a blaster, is intended for use wherever it is desirable to jet blast a granular material, as in sand cleaning or etching a surface, or diffusing a powder, as in disseminating an insecticidal or other type of powder in the home, the garden or elsewhere, or spraying a coloring dust in various hobby and other decorative activites, or in performing other more or less similar spraying, sprinkling and diffusing operations.

A principal object of the invention is to provide a blaster device of the character indicated in which the pulverulent material makes substantially no contact with the surfaces of the device when the material moves at blasting velocity, but contacts with those surfaces only when being fed at low velocity and pressure, so that wear on the material of the device is reduced to a minimum.

Another important object is to provide such a blaster in which the spray pattern can be regulated by making a simple adjustment of one of the parts of the device.

A related object is to provide a blaster in which the spray volume can be as easily adjusted.

Another object is to provide a blaster that is well adaptedto be made entirely-of any one of several of the well known synthetic plastics.

Still another object is to provide a blaster device of the character indicated having no moving parts and being constructed of only four elements, all of great simplicity of design and all of them being capable of ready assembly and disassembly for cleaning and refilling with different materials to be ejected.

With the foregoing and other objects and advantages in view, all of which it is believed will be sufficiently manifest to those skilled in the art as the description of one form of the invention hereinafter proceeds, a preferred embodiment of the invention which has been put into actual use and thoroughly tested and found to give entirely satisfactory results, and hence is at present preferred, is shown in the accompanying drawing, in which FIGURE'I is a perspective view of a blaster device embodying the inventive principles;

FIG. 2 is a longitudinal cross sectional view taken centrally vertically or axially through the barrel and receptacle on the line 22 of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a transverse cross sectional view taken vertically or diametrically through the barrel and receptacle on the line 3--3 of FIG. 2; and

FIG. 4 is a similar sectional view taken vertically through the nozzle portion of the device, on the line 4--4 of FIG. 2, and showing portions of the barrel and receptacle in elevation.

In these figures the reference numeral designates a main barrel element which is of over-all generally tubular shape and of substantially uniform, constant diameter from a rear end inlet port 11 to a forward end 12. While of course dimensions are not critical and form no part *the nozzle orifice 22, the inner surface of the member is Patented Jan. 5, 1965 of the invention, when the device is designed for using air supplied'by a conventional domestic vacuum cleaner, the internal diameter of the barrel will be approximately one and one-eighth inch, with a slightly tapering flare in its rear end portion thus adapting the rear end inlet port to be sleeved over and frictionally secured to the air discharge hose 13 commonly provided as an attachment adapted to be substituted for the dust bag connection fitting whenever an air jet is to be produced.

The material of which the barrel is made is preferably any of the several familiar types of inert, rigid synthetic plastics now in common use for molded devices and parts, e.g., polyvinyl chloride, Teflon, nylon, methyl methacrylate and the like, and the same material may be used for the other elements of the combination hereinafter to be described.

Mounted on a surface of the barrel which may be regarded as the upper or top surface when the barrel is disposed in a horizontal position as shown in the figures, and preferably integrated with the barrel by a sort of tangential extension 14 of the barrel structure, is a receptacle bottom 15. This is a fiat upper surfaced disc surrounded by an upstanding circumferential flange 16'which may be undercut as shown to facilitate seating on the disc the very slightly beaded rim or lip of a receptacle body 17 which is simply an inverted cup shaped container as shown in the drawing. The receptacle body 17, i.e., the receptacle itself, is readily detachable from the bottom 15 for filling with the pulverulent material 18 and, when replaced on the bottom, makes a tight, airtight fit therewith.

The upper surface of the receptacle bottom 15 is of special formation, being provided with a central longitudinally extending trough 19 which slopes downwardly toward the front end 12 of the barrel as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, terminating at its front in a round hole 20 within the confines of the receptacle bottom 15 and hence also within the plan projection of the receptacle body 17.

Fitted frictionally in airtight relation onto the fiont end portion 12 of the barrel is a nozzle outlet member 21 'which constitutes an extension of the barrel and tapers forwardly to a nozzle orifice 22. The nozzle member 21 is separable from the main barrel body 10 for a purpose presently to be described.

Within the nozzle member 21, a short distance behind formed with a set of radially inwardly projecting fins forming a spider 23 having a round central bore or opening positioned substantially axially of the barrel and barrel extension and of course being of much smaller diameter than that of any part of the barrel or extension.

In this bore or opening is slidably frictionally mounted the forward end portion of a pulverulent material supply or feed tube 24. The rear end portion of this tube extends through the hole 20 in the front end of the trough 19 and terminates in the trough, as shown in FIG. 2. The fit of 'the tube in the hole 20 is a frictionally tight but slidable one, as is the fit of the tube in the spider 23. The effect is that the tube can he slid lengthwise to lie in more or less of the trough and to project nearer to or farther from the nozzle orifice 22.

In use the receptacle body 17 is removed from the bottom 15, inverted and filled with the pulverulent material 18 that is to be forcibly ejected as a jet from the nozzle orifice 22. The filled receptacle, still held inverted from its position shown in the figures, is replaced on the bottom 15, and with the parts all assembled as shown in the drawings, the device is turned so that the receptacle stands on the top of the barrel, in the position illustrated. The trough fills by gravity with material 18, but none of issue from the front end of the tube. The rear or inlet end 11 of thebarrel is then connected to the air discharge hose 13 of a vacuum cleaner ,(or other equivalent source of air under pressure) and an air stream isvthus caused to pass through the barrel, as indicated by the heavy arrows inFIG.2.-

This air stream acquires increased velocity in the tapered front portion ofthe barrel extension 21, and the moving stream generates suction in the forward end portion of the tube 24. This aspirates material 18 from the trough, through the tube and out into the portion of the barrel extension 21 beyond the front end of the tube, where the material becomes entrained in the fast moving air stream and is discharged with the air from the nozzle orifice 22.

The issuing spray pattern is adjustable by regulating the position of the'tube 24 relative to the trough and the nozzle orifice. Sliding the tube rearwardly positions the front end outlet of the tube farther back in the barrel extension and causes the issuing stream of material to become dilfused more completely in the aspirating air stream so that the jet discharged from the nozzle orifice is material in air substantially uniformly dispersed across the whole cross section of the orifice. If the tube bemoved I forwardly in the barrel extension to a position nearer the nozzle orifice, the issuing jet is more compact and of smaller diameter.

It will be recognized that the trough 19 fills with material 18 only by force of gravity, i.e.,,the feed of material from the receptacle 17 into the barrel 10 depends on the receptacle being held more or less upright. The rate of feed of material is thus controlled by tilting the device. Flow of material is cut off completely if the device is inverted and is increased to maximum when the device is positioned With the receptacle vertically upright.

As has been explained, the receptacle body 17 is readily removable from the bottom member 15 for filling the receptacle, and the barrel extension 21 is just'as readily removable from the barrel 10. With both of the elements 17 and 21 removed, the position of the tube 24 in the trough can be visually. observed and adjusted. Replacement of the extension 21 onto the barrel is easily elfected, with care to insertthe front end of the tube through the spinder 23. r

The blaster is adapted to be used with a materials 18. This includes many substances that may tend to become caked or compacted in the receptacle and/or in the trough occurs and it is noted that the issuing blastbecomes relatively leanor perhaps completely devoid of pulverulent material, the stoppage canbe corrected by momentarily closing the nozzle orifice 22 as by applying the palm of; the hand while the air supply tothe barrel'is continued.

This has the effect of driving'air back through 'the feed tube and up into the trough and the receptacle, thus blowing out the obstruction and flufiing up the material in the receptacle. This action is clearly observable when the wide variety of .1

19 or feed tube 24. When this plastic, as is preferred.

In the foregoing specification, drawing,

and in the accompanying the inventive principles have been described and r illustrated in terms of a single preferred form of embodiment. It is to be understood that these principles are susceptible of incorporation in other and further modified forms and that all such are to be regarded as within the scope of the invention to the extent that they are within the purview of the appended claim.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

A blaster device comprising a barrel having tubular rear. and forward end portions and an inlet port at its rear end for connection to a source of air under pressure and having a trough formed in'its upper side wall behind its' tubular forward end portion sloping downwardly, and forwardly into the barrel,

a forwardly tapering nozzle having a tubular rear end portion frictionally fitted telescopically on the forward end portion of said barrel to form an extension thereof, I

an imperforate receptacle of inverted cup shape for pulverulent material removably mounted in airtight relation on the upper side wall of the barrel above the trough,

a pulverulent material feed tube of smaller diameter than the barrel having its rear end slidably seated in and communicating with the trough and its forward end mounted in'the nozzle behind the forward end thereof,

and a spider formed in the nozzle behind the forward end of the feed tube and slidably supporting the feed tube substantially axially in the nozzle,

tacle will fall 'into the trough and be aspirated through the feed tube by an air stream moving for-- wardly through the barrel and be entrained in the air stream in the forward portion of the nozzle to 40 discharge from the nozzle a blast whose characteristics can be adjusted byrsliding the feed tube axially in the trough and spider and by varying the degree of overlap ofv the telescoped end portions of the'barrel and nozzle. 7

References Cited by the'Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS J. SPENCER OVERHOLSER, Primary Examiner.

whereby pulverulent material contained in the recep- 

